TORONTO — The whole world is bi-polar, according to film director David O. Russell.

“Our economy is bi-polar: First, it was on a manic high. Then, it crashed,” says David O. Russell, the man who called the shots on The Fighter, and now the much-hyped Jennifer Lawrence-Bradley Cooper drama Silver Linings Playbook.

Slated to open mid-week, Russell’s latest is a quirky romance with deep dramatic potential and more than a few comic turns, but deep down, he says it functions as an allegory.

“There is a whole layer of this movie that I was focused on and it was the way these people are like everybody else. And like our world, they have bi-polar tendencies.”

Russell points to the emotionally charged father figure played by Robert De Niro: “He’s lost his pension in the crash, so he’s a manic guy who is taking on a manic way to support his family with bookmaking. So he still has his hands on the American economy in this bi-polar way. That was really important to me,” says Russell.

“The fact that these guys are trying to adopt a positive attitude — you know Jack Nicholson always said you should try to incline yourself upwards in life because it’s too easy to incline yourself downwards. And these guys have every reason to incline themselves downwards, but they are trying to rebuild the economy of their lives.”

If we’re to take Russell’s reading of Matthew Quick’s like-named novel as a contemporary critique of the current world order, things are entirely chaotic — despite a rather conventional appearance.

Set against the backdrop of modern-day Philadelphia, Silver Linings Playbook features Cooper as Pat Solitano — a thirtysomething man who spent time in a mental hospital after flying into a blind rage and nearly beating a man to death.

Estranged from his wife, who now has a restraining order against him, Pat tries to reinsert himself into the stream of daily life, but he meets certain challenges along the way because he’s still in love — even though his wife was cheating.

Enter the wild card romantic interest played by Lawrence (The Hunger Games) — an outspoken neighbour with a drinking problem and baggage of her own — to ensure the whole movie careens along the edge of disaster.

An unstable leading man with a restraining order against him makes for a problematic hero, but Russell says that was the point of the movie — forcing him to take a long, second look at the man People magazine named Sexiest Man Alive in 2011, Cooper.

“This guy I knew from Wedding Crashers has an intensity and anger that I found personally a little intimidating,” says Russell. “And that was a really good thing. There’s something scary about that: He’s not just the affable guy from The Hangover, and the more I got to know him, the more I saw these colours and dimensions.

“I was excited to put a guy like that in the movie because it’s like the character: He and this guy want to come back to town and, in some way, show themselves. There were parallels, and that is a gift for any director to have.”

Cooper shifts his manly mass in the chair as a group of reporters gawk at him and his co-star Lawrence, dressed in an eye-popping neon lemon outfit that announces every nubile curve with a bullhorn.

Cooper doesn’t agree that his character is menacing, unstable and potentially dangerous to those around him — despite the restraining order, the fact that he nearly killed a man or his endlessly compulsive behaviour.

“Maybe I drank the Kool-Aid of Pat Solitano, but I think he’s the most likable guy I have ever played,” says Cooper, beaming that billion-dollar grin.

“I felt so empathetic towards him. The guy is so heartbreaking: There isn’t a bad bone in his body. The way I saw it, he has no filter. All emotions are on the surface, a child who wants to love and be loved. I never thought ‘How do I find a way to like this guy?’ I love this guy.”

Lawrence says the characters’ likability wasn’t really an issue for her. The ambiguity of Russell’s approach to storytelling, and sympathy, was one of the reasons why the hottest star in the U.S. sent an audition tape from her father’s study in Louisville, K.Y. — even though Russell and the producers felt the star of Hunger Games and Winter’s Bone was far too young for the role.

“David is probably the only filmmaker who gives his audience a choice to not like people. All of the characters have so many different dimensions. There is no manipulation. They are just real people.”

Lawrence says she was overjoyed to land the part because she’s a huge fan of Russell’s, but she also became a huge fan of Cooper’s.

“I really don’t like getting to the end of a really long take and the director coming up to me after and telling me in a really polite way that he didn’t like it. Just … tell me what you didn’t like,” she says. “I’d prefer to not waste time.”

Lawrence says Cooper shares that straightforward approach and thanks to Russell, the two were forced to stay on their toes for the duration of the month-long shoot on location in Philly.

Things worked out so well between them, they ended up working together again immediately afterward on Oscar-winner Susanne Bier’s new Depression-era film, Serena.

“They both love to act,” says Russell. “There are actors who can do what De Niro calls ‘bedroom perfect’ — you know it was perfect in their bedroom when they were working on the thing. I don’t work well with those actors because when they come, I want to figure out what is going to happen now. It will be different, and that’s frightening (for some actors) because you have nothing to hold on to except what’s inside of you. Both (Jennifer and Bradley) are built that way.”